Active Holiday for Families Visiting Ukkohalla

The commissioning party of this thesis was Hiihtokeskus Ukkohalla-Paljakka Oy. The thesis was produced for one of their ski resorts, Ukkohalla Resort, located in Hyrynsalmi in the region of Kainuu. The resort wanted to reinforce their state as an all year-round holiday resort with diverse sport and wellness services. The main target group of the resort is families, therefore, they wanted to investigate whether families were satisfied with the sport activities offered in their ski resort and how the activities could be improved. The aim of this thesis was to investigate whether families traveling with children were pleased with the amount and quality of sport services offered in Ukkohalla and how active they were in using them. In order to better understand the topic, the theory of sport tourism, family tourism and ski tourism were examined. The importance of sport tourism within the travel industry was established and ski tourism as a significant part of it. In addition, the large market segment of family tourism and families’ domestic leisure traveling were reviewed. Furthermore, group dynamics and decision-making as a family unit and its effect on the choice of leisure travel destination and activities were explored. Moreover, ski resorts and factors affecting the choice of a ski resort were discussed. A questionnaire was used as a research method, which included the collection of quantitative and qualitative data. It was distributed to families traveling with children in Ukkohalla Resort during the winter season 2018-2019. The responses were used to answer the research question: “To what extent families traveling with children are satisfied with the sport activities offered in Ukkohalla Resort and how could the activities be improved?”. The questionnaire explored the prevalence of visits, activities done during the visit, the importance of diverse sport activities, suggestions for improving existing activities and requests for new activities. All in all, 91 responses to the questionnaire were received and the response rate was twenty-five percent. According to the results the families were pleased with the sport activities they had experienced. Downhill skiing was reported to be an important activity for the whole family, and it was one of the decisive factors in choosing Ukkohalla Resort as a destination. Outdoor activities were perceived as important and more nature related activities were requested by the respondents